Since Donald Trump became president, his administration has faced numerous accusations of promoting racist policies and rhetoric. These accusations only increased when he decided to remove Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth from the National Park Service’s annual free-entry days. Now, new developments have given many people further reason to view Trump and his administration as racist. Videos are currently circulating of the National Park Service removing slavery exhibits in Pennsylvania. These exhibits were held to honor the lives of nine people who were enslaved by President George Washington, according to ABC News. A video shared across social media showed how park workers started removing the historical signs one by one.
The rest of the video showed the three workers there as they proceeded to remove yet another historical sign. The Philadelphia Inquirer also shared the video as they described what was happening. According to them, one of the workers who was removing the slavery exhibits kept repeating, “I’m just following my orders.” Some of the exhibits that were taken down in Pennsylvania are titled “Life Under Slavery” and “The Dirty Business of Slavery.” It is very unfortunate that something like this was allowed to happen. Removing historical sites with such ease shouldn’t be the norm.
People Reacting to the Administration Removing Slavery Exhibits in Pennsylvania
The removal of the slavery exhibits in Pennsylvania was seen as a clear attempt to erase the history of slavery. Of course, this caused a lot of backlash as people reacted to the news. One person couldn’t help but ask, “Why are we trying to pretend slavery didn’t happen?” That’s a good question. Another person pointed out the obvious as they said, “You can’t erase history. Slavery was a very real thing smh.” Someone else added, “Denial of history does not erase it.” One Redditor even believed that similar actions can only mean one thing: this administration won’t let go of its power. “These are signs of a government that when the time comes, will not give up power,” they wrote.
More people expressed their outrage at what happened in Pennsylvania. One person couldn’t believe the many unfortunate things that happened in just one year under the current administration. “It’s insane the complete 180 this country has done in the last 12 months,” they wrote. Another person said, “The country is run by white supremacists who are also cartoonish idiots. Just crazy that nothing has been done about that.” A White individual was even embarrassed by what was happening. “[expletive] embarrassing day to be white,” they said. Someone else added, “The United States is an entirely embarrassing country.” Let’s hope history is never erased.
